An Equal Place: Lawyers in the Struggle for Los Angeles

An Equal Place is a monumental study of the role of lawyers in the movement to challenge economic inequality in one of America's most unequal cities: Los Angeles. Breaking with the traditional focus on national civil rights history, the book turns to the stories of contemporary lawyers, on the front lines and behind the scenes, who use law to reshape the meaning of low-wage work in the local economy. Covering a transformative period of L.A. history, from the 1992 riots to the 2008 recession, Scott Cummings presents an unflinching account of five pivotal campaigns in which lawyers ally with local movements to challenge the abuses of garment sweatshops, the criminalization of day labor, the gentrification of downtown retail, the incursion of Wal-Mart groceries, and the misclassification of port truck drivers. Through these campaigns, lawyers and activists define the city as a space for redefining work in vital industries transformed by deindustrialization, outsourcing, and immigration. Organizing arises outside of traditional labor law, powered by community-labor and racial justice groups using levers of local government to ultimately change the nature of labor law itself. Cummings shows that sophisticated legal strategy DL engaging yet extending beyond courts, in which lawyers are equal partners in social movements DL is an indispensable part of the effort to make L.A. a more equal place. Challenging accounts of lawyers' negative impact on movements, Cummings argues that the L.A. campaigns have achieved meaningful reform, while strengthening the position of workers in local politics, through legal innovation. Dissecting the reasons for failure alongside the conditions for success, this groundbreaking book illuminates the crucial role of lawyers in forging a new model of city-building for the twenty-first century.

Table of Contents:
1. From Riots to Recession: The Challenge to Low-Wage Work in Los Angeles 2. Garment Workers: Fighting to End Sweatshops 3. Day Laborers: Organizing the Corner 4. Retail Workers: Negotiating Community Benefits 5. Grocery Workers: Blocking the Big-Box Invasion 6. Truck Drivers: Challenging Misclassification 7. An Equal Place? Empirical Appraisal and Theoretical Implications

About the Author :
Scott L. Cummings is the Robert Henigson Professor of Legal Ethics and Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. He is faculty director of the Program on Legal Ethics and the Profession (LEAP), and a longtime member of the Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy.

Review :
"A deep dive into how lawyers and organizers have worked together to advance economic justice in Los Angeles. Cummings is honest about the fault lines, but his case studies and analysis support much optimism about the ways lawyers can help communities build power to fight inequality. A profoundly inspiring book."--Jennifer Gordon, Professor of Law, Fordham Law School, and author of Suburban Sweatshops: The Fight for Immigrant Rights "Cities have long been laboratories of American democracy, and Los Angeles has led the nation in crafting innovative campaigns to challenge the exploitation of low-wage immigrants in precarious jobs. Through a series of richly documented case studies, Cummings reveals the critical but often invisible role of lawyering in the legendary successes of the L.A. labor and immigrants' rights movements, lifting up the contribution of legal mobilization to this key arena of social change."--Ruth Milkman, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center, and author of L.A. Story: Immigrant Workers and the Future of the U.S. Labor Movement "An Equal Place: Lawyers in the Struggle for Los Angeles is a remarkably interesting book. It takes scholarship on lawyers and social movements in a new direction, grounding it in a compelling analysis of a place (Los Angeles) and an issue (income inequality). Scott Cummings shows how lawyers working with social movements can make a difference in the lives of disadvantaged persons and how law was used to help transform the low wage economy in one American city."--Austin Sarat, Associate Dean of the Faculty and William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence & Political Science, Amherst College "A landmark study of the contemporary labor movement in Los Angeles. Cummings reveals how tenacious organizing and innovative policy making from the bottom up, supported by savvy lawyering, can transform low-wage work and create the path to prosperity for all. It is a testament to courage and a call to further action."--Maria Elena Durazo, California State Senator and former Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor